Trade Union

As the strike drags on at Kwai Tsing, it appears the dockers are struggling to get union support for their fight for more pay - revealing the fractured state of the city's two key labour rights groups.

Tens of thousands of people around the world are taking to the streets today to mark May 1. What else is new? Well, plenty. The continuing economic crisis is hitting workers hardest. It also highlights how policies of the past decades have downgraded the meaning of decent work.

Unions have threatened industrial action if the MTR Corporation refuses to meet their demand for a 7 per cent pay rise.

Workers at the company are to receive performance-based pay rises ranging from 4.5 to 6.8 per cent from this month, it was announced yesterday. In addition, most workers will get bonuses equal to about a month's salary.

A union representing three bus companies has urged that workers get a 6 per cent pay rise after a survey showed 59 to 65.9 per cent of respondents hoped for a 4 to 6 per cent rise this year. The Confederation of Trade Unions Bus Unions Alliance interviewed 2,600 workers from KMB, New World First Bus and Citybus.

About 80 per cent of contract staff at public libraries said manpower shortages would reduce the quality of service when opening hours are extended next month, a Confederation of Trade Unions' poll found. Some 98 per cent of the 181 workers said more positions should be opened on civil service terms, with 90 per cent saying working on contract terms did not offer job security.

Hong Kong's largest labour union group is preparing to form several trade unions to represent lawyers, social workers and property agents as part of its efforts to recruit professionals to reinvent itself.

Li Wai-man is used to labour disputes, having covered many as a journalist. But the former news editor of local Chinese paper Sing Pao Daily News had always assumed unpaid employees were protected by the law. He now knows how wrong he was.

India's outsourcing boom has put the country on the economic map and money in the pockets of an army of local workers and their employers. But life at the end of the phone line isn't without its drawbacks and alarm bells are ringing at the Ministry of Health: a wave of health problems is hitting call centre staff.

Dozens of construction workers yesterday demanded that the government increase pay for those employed on government projects.

About 30 members of the Construction Site Workers General Union and members of the Confederation of Trade Unions marched to the Central Government Offices in the morning to voice discontent over their pay.

The Employers' Federation wants a 2.5 per cent pay rise cap next year, because of dimmer economic prospects. Do you agree with trade unions that the same old excuse is being used to force down wages? Write to us.